The present invention is related to thermostat controls commonly used in connection with residential or office heating ventilation air-condition systems (xe2x80x9cHVACxe2x80x9d), and more particularly related to thermostat controls that provide easy and convenient reading of its operating status.
Ever since the days of the national energy and gasoline crisis in the 1970s, the general public has been reminded over and over again that they should conserve energy whenever possible. Such reminder became especially significant, during the time when California went through its state-wide electric energy crisis. What can the general public do? Aside from driving less, using carpool or turning off appliances when not in use, one area where the consumers can help is right in their homes. For residential usage, energy policymakers in our government have advocated that the HVAC be turned off when no one is at home. Additionally, HVAC should be set differently between summer and winter seasons. In summer, the ideal temperature setting should be 78xc2x0 F., while the ideal temperature setting in winter should be 68xc2x0 F. This seasonal change will help conserve energy for home or commercial settings, without sacrificing their comfort.
While most people fully appreciate the need to conserve energy and are willing to cooperate in such endeavor, achieving such goal is not always possible, largely due to human error or negligence. For example, energy is wasted when the consumer forgets to turn the HVAC off when there is no one in the house. Energy is also wasted when the consumer neglects to adjust the setting during night time, or between seasons.
To make up for human imperfection, the HVAC industry has long promoted programmable thermostats. Such programmable thermostats use a timer to partition each day, during the week and in weekend, into different time zones, each of which can have a different temperature setting to regulate the HVAC""s operation according to the users"" routine during the week and weekend. For example, in winter, from 6 pm through 11 pm, the time zone can be set to provide a comfortable setting around 68xc2x0 F., since people are at home during that time. From 11 pm through 7 am, the time zone can be set to provide an even lower setting, since there is much less activity during night time. During the week""s day time, the setting may be to turn the HVAC off, since there is generally no one at home. For weekend, the HVAC may be turned back on, since there will be people at home. The programmable controls will adjust the settings of the HVAC, after being setup by the consumer initially. From that point on, the consumer does not have to concern himself with adjusting the temperature setting, whether it is for the day time setting, the night time setting, or even for the seasonal change.
Not everyone embraces a programmable thermostat, much in the same way that not everyone finds a programmable VCR useful, or easy to use. Aside from commanding a higher price than its conventional counterparts, the programmable thermostats are deemed by many to be either unnecessary, an overkill, or simply too complicated to use. From the perspective of those skeptics or nonbelievers, they can, and are willing to, adjust the thermostat manually, on the fly. For those who find the programmable thermostat too complicated, they simply ignore the convenience offered by the programmability, and instead resort to the xe2x80x9cmanualxe2x80x9d ON/OFF switch of the programmable thermostat. Such tendency defeats the purpose of having a programmable thermostat, as well as causes inefficient and wasteful use of heating and cooling energy in the homes.
For the manual thermostats, or those programmable thermostats operated in manual mode, one of the major drawbacks has been that they do not provide a useful reminder to the users of their status. Limited by the physical size, and the need to be inconspicuous, the conventional thermostats require the users to come close in order to observe the read-out. Due to this extra effort required, the users end up not being reminded to check the status, or to adjust for different time periods. Some of the read-out displays on the thermostat have become so small that they even motivated certain inventors to invent a magnifying glass apparatus, which can be attachable to the thermostats so that the status can be read out. See U.S. Pat. No. Des. 288,670, issued to Steiner, for A COMBINED THERMOSTAT AND MAGNIFIER THEREFOR, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,455, issued to Homing, for A COVER FOR WALL MOUNTED THERMOSTAT INCLUDING ILLUMINATION MEANS AND MAGNIFYING MEANS.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a thermostat that can provide useful status information, in addition to current temperature and pre-set temperature, to the users in a convenient manner.
It would also be desirable to have a thermostat that can facilitate the efficient use of heating and cooling energy.
It would further be desirable to have a thermostat that can alert the users that the setting has been tempered with.
An illuminating thermostat for a HVAC system with visual display is disclosed. The thermostat has a power switch to select one of heater and cooler for the HVAC system, a light sensor (200) to sense ambient lighting, a temperature sensor (210) to sense ambient temperature, a manual temperature switch (260) to control the operation of the heater and cooler, a control circuit (220) to select a preferred built-in temperature based on selection of the power switch, an illuminating outer cover (110) to at least partially cover the thermostat, and to illuminate either one of its colors according to selection of the power switch and the ambient lighting, and a plurality of LED displays (140) arranged on a display face of the thermostat, which display one arrangement of the LEDs based on a difference between the preferred temperature and the ambient temperature.
The user of the thermostat can readily determine whether the HVAC is turned on by looking at the illuminating cover, which displays one color, e.g. Blue, if the cooler is selected or another color, e.g. Red, if the heater is selected, without having to approach the thermostat or turn on the ambient light. The strength of the Blue or Red color on the illuminating cover may also be positively proportional to the ambient lighting, such that the color remains visible in both bright and dark ambient lighting situation. The user can also readily determine whether the HVAC is operating consistent with the preferred and optimal temperature setting by visually observing the location at which one, or more, of the LEDs is lit up. In one situation, the location of the LED that is lit up will indicate whether the actual temperature is above or below the preferred temperature and extent of such difference. The warmer it gets above the preferred temperature, the farther the LED to the right of the optimal state LED is lit. In the opposition situation, the cooler it is below the preferred temperature, the farther the LED to the left of the optimal state LED is lit.
The illuminating thermostat in accordance with the present invention allows the user to conveniently obtain status, usage and ambience information much more effortlessly than the conventional thermostat.